The Gulf Cartel’s nervous Mexican leaders
Only two remained on the scene. The Professor, the undisputed head of the world’s largest narcotics network and its long-time commander, had run the operation from a modest apartment in Denia. His right hand was The Mathematician, a chemistry and exact sciences professor from Oslo who operated without any formal degree, serving as the network’s accountant and trusted international fixer.
Both were arrested last weekend in Colombia as they were traveling to a meeting with the cartel’s top figures in the region and with the producers who used to supply the Professor with product.
That meeting had been demanded by the Mexicans. They had already lost a significant portion of their supply—1,500 kilograms seized by the Spanish National Police in December in international waters near Isla Martinica. More importantly, with the fall of the Professor’s network, one of the cartel’s most reliable and profitable routes into the United States was suddenly jeopardized.
Mexican nerves within the Gulf Cartel
The double loss demanded explanations and future commitments, and that urgency drove the Mexicans to press for a face-to-face with the leaders they believed could fix the situation.
When the National Police publicly announced the dismantling of the organization led by Pazooki Farhad, an Iranian-born Norwegian known as The Professor who had been masking his activities by teaching Norwegian in the Marina Alta, a crucial fact was left out. He and his second in command, an Albanian who was highly dangerous and who had spent time in the Picassent prison after being detained in Valencia, were not among the 52 arrests across nine countries. The omission kept a significant detail out of the mainstream press.
Spanish media, including Levante-EMV, and their foreign counterparts did not notice this discrepancy, but Colombian and Mexican narcos who had been closing deals face-to-face with The Professor for decades did. These were operations involving large cocaine shipments that spanned twenty years of business relationships.
The ruse perfected
Spanish police officers from the narcotics division of the central anti-drug unit, with judicial clearance from a Arrecife magistrate in Tenerife, set a trap. They publicly announced the takedown of the macro-network with the aim of drawing the two kingpins to meet. The plan was to capture what remained of the leadership by leveraging the expectation that the Mexicans would seek direct assurances about what happened and how operations would proceed in the future. The tactic worked.
Farhad and The Mathematician, Bernsten Bjarte, were not where they were supposed to be when the final phase of Operation Mentor began. Was it coincidence or a leak? In truth, The Professor had left Denia days earlier, heading home to Iran and passing through Dubai, a haven for the world’s top narcotics operatives, and then on to Turkey.
The big fish fall into the net
With the bait set, the major targets took the bait. Farhad, monitored by Spanish police, traveled illegally using his real identity from Iran to Colombia, making layovers in Dubai and Turkey along the way. He landed at Bogota’s El Dorado airport on Sunday, where Colombian authorities waited with open arms.
A day earlier, on Saturday, The Mathematician had been arrested at the Barranquilla port in northern Colombia. He traveled with a Norwegian passport stamp tainted by a false seal. Bernsten Bjarte, a man of exceptional intellect, had moved alone from Panama to Colombia aboard one of his own yachts. Like his boss, he did not attend the Gulf meeting. Spain is now awaiting extradition proceedings for him.
Subtitle: End of the chapter for these two operatives as the trial moves forward.